19 January 2010

I don't want to read another fucking limerick!

The poems for Rogue Stimulus: The Stephen Harper Holiday Anthology for a Prorogued Parliament are pouring in, with just an hour to go before the deadline. My co-editor on this project, Stephen Brockwell, was on CBC's As It Happens tonight, and somehow that triggered a friggin' avalanche of limericks. Well, actually, tons of limericks and other doggerel were already dropping into the harper@mansfieldpress.net inbox.

We've received about 200 poems so far, from all across Canada. And really, I don't want to read another limerick. Though I do think it's telling that Stephen Harper would inspire these sordid little rhymes.

It does amaze me, though, that doggerel is still what comes to mind when a huge portion of Canadian think of poetry.

There have been some amazing poems in the inbox, too, and by some very fine poets. Some I've heard of and some I haven't. It's going to be a great anthology, and I will never have to read another limerick. You can't make me!